The tale of a woman who loves music, sustainability and fun!

American Eagle merchandise display in Canada does not comply with Canadian spelling!

I know I write extensively on the issue of American companies disregarding Canadian spelling in their marketing displays, but I can’t help it. In my present circumstance in life, I have to walk by a mall every morning and afternoon five days a week, and seeing the letter “u” omitted from common words like “colour” and “neighbour” is like a major slap in my face.

Here is what I wrote to American Eagle just now:

The Canadian store displays currently at American Eagle does not comply with Canadian spelling. The word “favorite” is repeatedly posted on the display, when it should have been spelled “favourite”, with the “u”.

The error, though a small one, just shows how much you respect your Canadian customers.

I will be posting this story on my blog as a sort of push for you to correct this ASAP. I will also be posting the response I get, so hopefully it will be good.

My blog also has the picture of the display I am referring to at. http://www.vanessadelsooz.ca.

I wrote a letter to Banana Republic about their front display months ago that included the word “Colour” without the letter “U”. Jennie from Banana Republic’s customer service reassured me she didn’t mean to cause any offence and that the marketing team will look into it. The display was up until the end of the season and I didn’t think about it again until today.

This time it was with the word “Favourite”!

I spent an unspeakable amount on Banana Republic clothes, so this error really bugs me! Not to mention that I have to walk by this place everyday.

So this is what I wrote to their customer service:

Dear Banana Republic,

It seems that my complaint on your American spelling tendencies on your front display stores in Canada has yet to be acknowledged.

The previous display that spelled out the word “color”, which should have been “colour”, has been gone, but a new display is in BP’s Canadian front display, this time with the word “Favorite” which should be “Favourite”.

Please have this error corrected along with any other grammatical errors in the Canadian branch. Your lack of consideration to Canadian spelling shows how much you respect your Canadian customers.

Once again, I will be posting this story on my blog as a sort of impetus for you to remedy this eye sore.

The new public washroom in the newly renovated Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto

The other day I stumbled across the public washroom in the newly renovated Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and my! what a pleasant surprise it was! Just look at how clean it is, just ready to be used.

Asbestos, being the lethal substance that it is, is banned in Canada yet still remains to this day a heavily exported item. One member of parliament, being the one in my riding, has no problem making this clear with me.

The issue first came to my attention from a piece done by the CBC that insightfully explained the plight of the millions of Indians currently dying a excruciatingly painfully slow death because asbestosis.

Canada exports 4 millions tonnes of asbestos each year, a third of it goes to India, and the rest goes to Russia, Kazakhstan and Zimbabwe.

It goes without saying, this is very criminal and highly uncharacteristic of what the Canadian government is supposed to stand for.

There’s a few glimmers of hope though, a few NDP MP’s have brought the issue up, and even Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff voiced his concern in parliament.

I wanted my MP to join the movement, but he made it no secret that he fully supports the exports of asbestos!

To my utter dismay, Jim Karygiannis (who is a ‘liberal’) tells me that we need to be mindful of the jobs in Quebec (where asbestos is mined), and Canadian businesses have to stay competitive. If we ban the exports, then India will buy asbestos from another country, and Canada will lose money. oh no.

I told him these are the low morales of a used car salesman, not the Canadian government!

He went on to use analogies such as guns being banned in Canada but we still produce and export them to other countries. In fact there is a factory in Scarborough that produces guns! Should we close it down in light of the fact that 200 families will be without food on the table?

Could he at least be more convincing in his arguing? Did I have to tell him this short sighted view doesn’t consider that those guns kills way more than 200 people, if not a lot more people around the world!

Then he gave me some silly shpeel of how the money makes the world go round, and we gotta create jobs. So why stop human trafficking? Where does ethics come to play?

But he seemed to have more insight in that regard, “I saw suffering. I was in Iraq last week,” So?

For him, money is the bottom line. The mission in Afghanistan was just to give soldiers jobs he said.

I don’t mind an opinion, but I do mind an ill-informed one. Then I checked his credentials, which was engineering. That might explain why he thinks in numbers, but that’s not an excuse.

If you live in the Scarborough/Agincourt riding, please let him know that some Canadians care about others, even if they are Indian.

When I heard about the whole controversy on Quebec’s reasonable accommodation forum, a story came to mind.
Many years ago in my French class, my teacher, who wore midriffs, told us to pick a very controversial topic and present the points of both sides. At first she gave us some topics to choose from, racism was one of them. “I don’t want to hear the points supporting racism!” said this one girl. And everyone agreed.
“Okay, fine you can chose your own topic”, she said.
Everyone tried to steer away from controversy, including myself. I chose to talk about censorship in music, a guy from Alberta talked about the NHL, but Song decided to talk about gay people. Song was new to Canada from Eastern Asia. He was quiet all year and had an awkward composure, but now he got up in front of his class to present his argument against the gays. According to him, it wasn’t natural to be gay, that it was wrong.

Big mistake. Immediately everyone just shot at him. “what do you mean?” said one girl
“Oh my god, he did not just say that,” a girl beside me said. Everyone else continued to yell at him, in English.
The only person that I thought would have said something was the dyke, but she sat quietly. I must say it was a very awkward moment.
Song just left the class and never returned.

This is what kind of bothered me. Song, probably in his mid 30’s, had recently moved to Canada. He, like a lot of immigrants, was most likely raised with a traditional upbringing, and in a culture that rejects homosexuality. How could we expect Song to come here and right away erase his values and adopt ours? I don’t think Song will join a hate group, or beat up someone because he is gay. He seems pretty peaceful, but he just doesn’t think being gay is right. Are we going to shout at him so he can think otherwise? Are we going to cast him away until he agrees with everyone else?

Yelling, intimidating, and isolating someone isn’t the way to reason with their beliefs.
Instead of shouting at him that day, I wish we just reasoned with him. It was a rare opportunity to confront his beliefs and explain that its not up to us to decide what’s natural for others, and that this was a multi cultural society that accepts everyone despite differences.
Song was one of few newcomers who openly spoke up about his beliefs and he was not even tolerated, let alone being accommodated.